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THE CUBAN QUESTION. 



SPEECH 



OF 



^ 



HON. JOSEPH b:foraker, 



OF OHIO, 



IN THE 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



Wednesday, April IS, 189S. 



W-A.SHINGTOM. 

1S98. 









G8085 






SPEECH 

OF 

IIOX. JOSEPH B. FORAKEE, 



The joint resolution (S. R. 149) for the recognition of the inde- 
pendence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government 
of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the Island of 
Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and 
Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States 
to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry 
these resolutions into effect, was read the first time at length, as 
follows: 

Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three 
years in the Island of Cuba, so near our own borders, liavo shocked the moral 
.sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian 
civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States 
battle ship, with 26ii of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the 
harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the 
President of the United States in his message to Congress of April 11, 189B, 
upon which the action of Congress was invited: Therefore, 

Eesolved b;/ the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, Fii'st. That the people of the Island of Cuba 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent. 

Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Gov- 
ernment of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of 
Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba 
and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters. 

Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby ia, di- 
rected and empowered to use the entire land and naviil forces of the United 
States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of 
the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry these resolu- 
tions into effect. 

****** «- 

The Secretary. It is proposed to strike out all after the re- 
solving clause and insert: 

The President is authorized, directed, and empowered to intervene at 
once to restore peace on the Island of Cuba, and secure to the people thereof 
a firm, stable, and independent government of their own, and is authorized 
to use the Army and naval forces of the United States to secure this end. 
******* 

Mr. FORAKER. Mr. President, in his message of the 11th in- 
stant the Pre.sident of the United States has very thoroughly and 
with striking effect and force reviewed the entire Cuban question. 
After a thorough discussion of it in all its features and aspects, 
he announces certain conclusions which he has reached. Among 
these conclusions is the following. I read from the President's 
message. Speaking of the long-protracted struggle in Cuba, he 
says: 

The long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has waged the 
war can not be attained. 

After stating his conclusions, the President then makes certain 
recommendations, some in a negative and some in an affirmative 
form. One of the negative recommendations is that notwith- 
3229 3 . 



standiuj? he finds and states to ua that the effort of Spain to sub- 
due and conquer the insurgents in Cuba has been futile, we shall 
continue to deny to the people of Ciiba and also to the govern- 
ment established by the insurgents of Cuba a recognition of inde- 
pendence. 

The President then proceeds to make certain affirmative recom- 
mendations. One of these affirmative recommendations is that 
Congress shall invest him with power — 

To take measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities be- 
t'^een the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the 
island the establishment of a stable government, capable of maintaining 
order and observing its international obligations. 

The President makes other recommendations, but I do not care 
to refer to them tn this connection. 

This message, with these recommendations, was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations. I need not say, after the read- 
ing of the very elaborate report of the Foreign Relations Commit- 
tee, that it has given to this subject the most profound, careful, 
and exhaustive consideration. That report was prepared by our 
distinguished chairman [Mr. Davis]. I may, therefore, with 
propriety speak of it in words of compliment. It must be mani- 
fest to every Senator that it bears the marks of that ability which 
characterizes all the productions of that distinguished Senator's 
pen. 

Together with this report, the committee has placed before us, 
with its favorable recommendation for adoption, a set of resolu- 
tions. Those resolutions have just been read. They declare, in 
the first place, that the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of 
right ought to be, fi-ee and independent. In their second proposi- 
tion they declare that it is the duty of this Government to de- 
mand, and that this Government does hereby — demand by the pas- 
sage of these resolutions — not by the action of somebody else 
hereafter to be taken — does hereby demand that Spain shall at 
once withdraw her land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban 
waters. 

The resolutions then go on to empower the President to employ 
the Army and the Navy of the United States to carry them into 
effect. 

It will be observed, if you compare the recommendations of the 
President with the recommendations of the committee, that there 
are some differences of opinion as to what should be done, although 
we are in accord as to the main great purpose that is to be accom- 
plished; for it will be observed, Mr. President, that the committee 
have differed from the President upon the question of recogniz- 
ing the independence of the people of Cuba, and as the Senate has 
been advised by the minority, or rather by the supplemental re- 
port just made by the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Turpie] , a mi- 
nority of that committee, consisting of five members out of eleven, 
have reiK)rted that in their judgment there should be added to the 
resolutions reported by the committee another resolution recog- 
nizing the Republic of Cuba as the tfue and lawful government 
of that island. 

Mr. FRYE. Were there not 4 out of 11? 

Mr. GRAY. Yes; 4 out of 11. 

Mr. FORAKER. I thought there were 5. I beg your pardon. 
The report wiU show. 

Mr. FRYE. There were only 4. 

Mr. FORAKER. Four, is it? I thought there were 5. 
32S9 



Mr. CULLOM. No; the minority report is signed by the Sena- 
tor from Indiana [Mr. Tuhpie], the Senator from Texas [Mr. 
]\IiLLSl , the Senator from Virginia [Mr. DanielJ, and the Senator 
from Ohio [Mr. Forakek]. 

Mr. FORAKER. No matter how many signed it, the minority 
report is there. I signed it, and I stand here to speak in belialf of 
that resolution so recommended by the minority of that commit- 
tee, as well as to speak in favor of all the resolutions rGcommended 
by the committee unanimously. 

The committee, Mr. President, in addition to this provision for 
recognizing the independence of the people of Cuba, have further 
declared that the time has come not for further negotiations but 
for Spain to withdraw her land and naval forces. In other words, 
they have differed with the President as to the form and charac- 
ter of that intervention. 

I shall speak presently with more particularity as to the ques- 
tion of our right at this time to recognize the independence of the 
people of Cuba and to recognize the independence of that govern- 
ment. I want first to speak briefly of the question of interven- 
tion 

Mr. MORGAN. Will the Senator from Ohio allow me? 

Mr. FORAKER. Yes. 

Mr. MORGAN. I desire to call the attention of the Senator to 
the fact that the resolution provides that the Government of Spain 
shall at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island 
of Cuba and also withdraw its land and naval forces. 

Mr. FORAKER. I thank the Senator from Alabama for call- 
ing my attention to the text of the resolution. I was not looking 
at the resolution, although I had it in my hand, and Avas not en- 
deavoring to quote from it, but only to state tlie substance of it. 

As I was remarking, Mr. President, I desire first to speak of the 
difference between the Exectitive and the committee, as shown by 
these recommendations, as to the form and character of interven- 
tion. The committee differed with the President in the first place 
because, in the judgment of the committee, the time had come 
when no further negotiations were in order. In the language of 
the President employed in this message, the time for action, in the 
judgment of the committee, had come, and the committee felt that 
while they had the matter under consideration they would provide 
for action, immediate and specific, and, as they believed, in char- 
acter and keeping with the desires of the American people in 
respect to this matter. 

In the second place, Mr. President, the committee, or at least 
some members of the committee, had grave doubts as to the right 
of Congress to confer upon the Chief Executive of the nation the 
conditional exercise of the war-making power. Congress alone is 
invested with the war-making power. The proposition of the 
President was that he should take effective steps, such of course 
as he might deem effective, and that if he should fail to secure a 
cessation of hostilities in Cuba, then and in that event he was au- 
thorized to employ the Army and the Navy of the United States. 
In other words, make war in the condition or contingency that 
his negotiations should fail. I, for one at least, think the com- 
mittee generally doubted the legality of that proposition. 

Then, Mr. President, as to the establishment of a stable govern- 
ment by the President of the United States in the Island of Cuba, 
the committee were of the opinion that there might possibly be 
grave doubt as to the right of Congress to empower the President 

3229 



of the United States or for the Congress itself to create and es- 
tablish a stable government in the Island of Cuba for the benefit 
of the Cuban people. 

However that may be, after the committee had declared that the 
people of the Island of Cuba are and of right ought to be free and 
independent, the proposition that the President of the United 
States or the Congress of the United States or any other exterior 
power should establish for that independent people a government 
stable or otherwise was inconsistent. 

If a people be free and independent, as we have in this first 
proposition declared that the people of the Island of Cuba are, 
they, and they alone, have power to establish their government. 
Independence and sovereignty go hand in hand, and any people 
who have independence have the capacity and the right to exer- 
cise sovereignty, and it is a denial of independence to say in the 
next breath after you have declared it that we will undertake, or 
we do hereby reserve the right and power, to establish for that 
independent people a government such as in our judgment and 
opinion may be stable. 

I mention these points of difference only because it is absolutely 
essential to an intelligent discussion that we should know what 
are the issues which have been joined. Without knowing what 
are the questions of difl'erence we are groping in the dark. 

As I said a moment ago, I do not propose, beyond the mere state- 
ment of these grounds of differences with the Executive as to in- 
tervention, to discuss that proposition. I ret am therefore at 
once to a discussion of the question whether or not the committee 
is justified in recommending the recognition at this time of the 
independence of the people of Cuba. 

Whether or not a people who have revolted and rebelled against 
a sovereign power and are striving for independence are entitled 
to be recognized as an independent state is always a question of 
fact as well as a question of law. Before you can tell what law 
is applicable to any particular case you must ascertain what the 
facts are. What are the facts with respect to Cuba? Fortu- 
nately in answering that question I need not long or tediouslj'^ de- 
tain the Senate. Not only from the newspapers and other sources 
of information, but from Presidential messages, from the last one 
received, and especially and particularly from the very able re- 
port of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, we 
have been fully advised. 

Moreover, the whole country and the whole world are familiar 
with the Cuban question. All who know the facts know that for 
more than three years now war has been in progress in that 
island — bloody, fierce, ciuel, destructive war; destructive in an 
unusual degree both to life and property; and all the world knows, 
too, that from the very beginning of that struggle down to the 
present time Sxtain has been, as to all essential and important mat- 
ters, uniformly unsuccessful. The President was justified when 
he said, in the sentence I read from his message a mome^it ago, 
that it is now manifest to all the world that the purpose of Spain 
to recover her lost sovereignty can never be attained. 

She started out with the idea that she would crush that rebellion 
with a blow. In that behalf she concentrated in that devoted 
island practic;ally the entire military power of the Kingdom. She 
had there at one "time and for months more than 200,000 of her most 
capable soldiers, commanded by her generals who have been most 
Bucoessful in other fields; bu,t it was all in vain. That tremendous 
army proved absolutely insufficient to conquer and subdue the 

•6220 



insnvi^eiits and restore peace. Finding how unavailing that land 
of effort was, she then resorted to persuasion— to diplomacy. 

She tendered autonomy, a new schemo of government— home 
rule— a scheme with respect to which the senior Senator from 
Maine [Mr. Hale], speaking on this floor a few weeks ago, said 
it was the broadest, the most liberal, the most generous charter 
of liberty ever tendered by any sovereignty to a dependency. 
Whether it was or not is immaterial; it so impressed him. But 
however it may be, assuming that it was so, the people of Cuba 
who have risen in rebellion against the sovereign power indig- 
nantly spurned and refused it. That elTort to conquer them was 
unavailing. 

Another policy has been resorted to of which I should speak — 
the policy of extermination, extermination by starvation, a policy 
so cruel, so unmerciful, so barbarous in its practices and in its I'e- 
sults as absolutely to shock and horrify all Christendom. More 
than 200,000 lives have perished in Cuba as victims of that policy 
alone. While we sit here this afternoon deliberating, 200,000 other 
lives are perishing from it. 

Mr. President, notwithstanding the hurling of all this great 
force against the insurgents in Cuba, notwithstanding this effort 
of diplomacy and statecraft, this promise of reforms in govern- 
ment, notwithstanding the murder, for it is nothing else, of hun- 
dreds of thousands of men, women, and children in that island, 
to which I have referred, the insurgents stand to-day more defi- 
ant, more powerful, more assured of ultimate success and more 
determined to do, and dare, and die, if need be, in behalf of inde- 
pendence than ever before since this struggle commenced. They 
were never so strong as now. They control absolutely more than 
one-half of that territory. More than 400,000 of the population 
of the island recognize no government except only their civil gov- 
ernment. Thej' have an army in the field, trained veterans they 
have become, numbering thirty-five or forty thousand men, well 
armed and well equipped, more invincible than at any time here- 
tofore; and as an offset to that success on the part of the Cubans 
that which the President indicates has been occurring with re- 
spect to Spain. 

Her army of more than 200,000 men has dwindled to from fifty 
to sixty thousand effectives, poorly disciplined and poorly drilled, 
and that army of aggression and offensive operations has ceased to 
be an offensive and aggressive army. For months it has been only 
an army of occupation, holding on to the fortified cities, control- 
ling nothing in the island beyond the range of their guns, not 
daring to venture out beyond the walls of those cities and remain 
there over night for fear old Gomez would capture them and take 
them off into his camp. 

Mr. President, in other words it is now plain to all the world, 
plain to Spain herself, for she has been for months, and is now by 
every steamer, recalling her troops from there, that she is no 
longer attended in her efforts to subdue that island by any reason- 
able expectation or hope of ultimate success. That being the case, 
such being the facts, what is the law of the case? I read from 
Hall on International Law. It is a standard and a modern 
authority. It has been written in the light not only of ancient 
but of modern precedents. I shall not stop to read all of the text. 

Mr. STEWART. From what page does the Senator from Ohio 
intend to read? 

Mr. FORAKER. Page 92. He tells us that whenever the 



8 

struggle on the part of the former sovereign becomes "so inade- 
quate as to offer no reasonable ground for supposing that success 
may ultimately be obtained, it is not enoiagh to keep alive the 
rights of the state, and so to prevent foreign countries from fall- 
ing under an obligation to recognize as a state the community 
claiming to have become one." 

I need not read other authorities, but I challenge any Senator 
•who may enter into this discussion to find an authority incon- 
sistent with the declaration which I have read, who is accepted as 
a standard authority among those who are competent to judge of 
international-law writers. 

That is the rule; whenever the struggleon the part of the sovereign 
to recover lost authority, lost sovereignty, has ceased to be attended 
with a reasonable hope or expectation of success, then other coun- 
tries have a right to recognize the independence of the opposing 
people. If I have been talking to any purpose, I have made it 
plain by the statement of facts I have given that no longer are the 
struggles of Spain in the Island of Cuba attended with any rea- 
sonable hope or expectation of success. That being true, Mr. 
President, according to the principles of international law we 
have a right, as the committee have reported, and it is our duty 
to recognize the independence of the people of Cuba. 

But suppose something is lacking in the Cuban case to justify 
ns in claiming that they are absolutely free and independent, 
will not that which may be lacking, whatever it may be, be sup- 
plied when the United States of America intervenes, as we pro- 
pose to do by this same resolution? Intervention goes here, 
according to this resolution, as it does naturally, hand in hand 
with independence. When this demand which we all agree is to 
be made, thgt Spain shall withdraw, is made upon her, that min- 
ute she must either abdicate, which would leave the island free 
and independent to the satisfaction, I imagine, of the most hostile 
mind to the recognition of independence, or else, if she does not 
abdicate, she must then give battle— declare war; and what 
American can doubt, or does doubt, the ultimate result of war, 
if we are so unfortunate as to have war? 

Will it not result in the absolute freedom and independence of 
the people of the Island of Cuba? Unquestionably so; for we 
expect to prosecute a war to triumphant success, if we are driven 
into one. 

So, therefore, I say, upon authority, in strict consonance with 
the rules and principles of international law, it is the duty of the 
Government of the United States, as well as the right and privi- 
lege of this Government, now, at this very moment, when we pass 
a resolution to intervene, to recognize the independence of the 
people of that island. 

Mr. President, I now wish to speak of the resolution which the 
minority of the committee favor. The minority of the committee 
are not satisfied simply to recognize the independence of the peo- 
ple of that island. We want to recognize also, and we appeal to 
Senators in this Chamber to stand by us in that proposition, the 
government set up by the insurgents, referred to by tiie President 
in his message as the '"so-called" Cuban Republic. 

We think this government ought to be recognized in the first 
place because if the people of Cuba are free and independent, as 
we have agreed unanimously in the committee they are, who made 
them free and indei>endent? Did they become free and independ- 
ent actiitg as a mob? exerting themselves in a state of anarchy? 



without any political organization? No! Such wonderful achieve- 
ments as stand to their credit we all know could not have been 
accomplished without concert of action, without political organi- 
zation, and they had it in the Republic of Cuba. That was their 
civil government, to which the military force commanded by 
Gomez is subordinate. 

Mr. President, there are a great many other reasons why we 
should recognize that government. I hope I shall be able to men- 
tion a number of them. 

We ought to be willing to recognize it because of its form and 
character. It is a republican form of government. It is a gov- 
ernment based on a written constitution, in which the sev'eral 
departments of the government are established and the powers of 
the various departments and officials are prescribed. It has a 
legislative, an executive, and a Judicial department. The legisla- 
tive branch of the government is elected by popular vcJte. In 
Cuba, mider this constitution, thev have universal suffra<'-e. 
Every man or woman who owes allegiance to the Cuban Govern- 
ment has a right to go to the ballot box and be heard in determin- 
ing what the government shall be as to the personnel of its offi- 
cials. The house of representatives, elected by the people in this 
manner, selects the president and vice-president and the cabinet; 
and what character of government have they selected? Let me 
call your attention for a moment to the character of these officials. 

I have heard that government referred to here as though it were 
made up of a lot of inconsequential nobodies. I say, without at- 
tempting to disparage anybody, the president and vice-president 
of the Cuban Republic, for intellectual strength and power and 
vigor, for high character, for unquestioned ability, for statesman- 
ship, will compare favorably with the President and Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States of America. Than Bartolome Maso 
there is no more accomplished gentleman, probably, on the West- 
ern Hemisphere; a man of large means, a man of large experience 
in public affairs, a man who— and I mention this to show his 
character— when the war broke out called in all his creditors and 
paid every one of them in cash the full sum owing, then turned 
over the keys to his tenants and departed for the field. He is now 
president of that republic, after having served two years as vice- 
president under Cisneros, recently elected as such by the general 
assembly chosen by popular vote. 

With this distinguished president is associated in office as vice- 
president Dr. Domingo Mendez Capote, who was professor of law 
in the Havana University for years before called to this position. 
I have taken pains to find out about these people. They are men 
of distinguished reputation, men of high character, men of great 
learning and ability; and the secretaries, if it was worth while to 
take the time to pass them in review, would be shown to be men 
of the same general class and reputation and character. So much 
for the personnel of the Cuban Republic. 

Mr. President, what has this Government done? I said a while 
ago if- the people of Cuba are free and indeijendent it is becapse 
this Governn^ent has acted as their political agency in guiding 
and directing them to that freedom and independence. It has 
been stated here that it is a paper government. That is true; 
but it is a most excellent paper government; it is a most excellent 
actual government as well. Not only are all the officers elected 
in tlje manner I have indicate<l, but "they are all in effice and aH 
serving acceptably and efficiently in the discharge of their duties. 

3329 



10 

We have taken a great deal of testimony before our committee in 
regard to tins matter, but all we liave taken in that way has been 
spread before the public, and it should bo known to Senators. 

It is shown by that testimony that they have in the Island of 
Onba, instituted by this paper government, a postal system which 
is carrying the mails to-day throughout the island into every for- 
tified city, as well as throughout the territorial parts of the island. 
You can go to New York and deposit with the junta a letter ad- 
dressed to anybody, in any place in Cuba, with a Cuban postage 
stamp attached, and it will find its destination just as surely as 
a letter deposited in a United States post-office will reach its des- 
tination within our territory. They not only have a postal sys- 
tem, but they have a fiscal system— a fiscal system which has pro- 
vided tax collectors for the government throughout all that island. 

The island is divided into districts and subdistricts, with a col- 
lector in each, who is authorized to collect not indiscriminately, 
as the enemies of the Republic of Cuba would have you believe, 
but according to law duly enacted, in accordance with a uniform 
system prescribed for all who live in that island. Each and every 
man is reqiiired to pay precisely alike, and when the subtreasurer 
of that government appointed at New York was before the com- 
mittee a few days ago he showed us in his books where more than 
$470,000 collected by these tax collectors throughout that island 
had been transmitted to him as revenues of that government, 
every dollar of which had been collected by the officials of the Re- 
public of Cuba, and for every dollar of which an official receipt 
had been given. 

They have, in addition to their postal and fiscal system, a school 
system more creditable than any established by Spain in any place 
in the world. They have a compulsory system of education. 
Every child between certain ages is required to attend school. 
They have a public printing press at their capital (of which I will 
speak in a moment), where, by the government, school books are 
printed, and by the government distributed to the scholars 
throughout the island. All are educated according to a system of 
the government, a system established and conducted by the gov- 
ernment and the representatives of the government. 

Ah, but, some one says, it has no fixed capital and no seaport. 
There are a great many countries that have no seaports. That is 
of no consequence. Switzerland has not any seaport, and one or 
two of the South American republics, I believe, have no seaports. 
Other countries have been recognized as independent states when 
they had no seaports. That is immaterial. 

The Cubans do have a fixed capital. It is located at Cubitas. 
It has to be at times somewhat peripatetic, going from this to that 
place, but never removing any verj' great distance. They have 
stayed all the while within that one territorial stibdistrict where 
the capital is, at Agramonte, in Cubitas, where it is located now 
and has been for some considerable time. They have public 
offices, the Presidential office, the office for each of tlie secretaries 
of state, as they are called there. Although there is a secretary 
of the treasury and a secretary of agriculture, etc. , they are all 
called secretaries of state, each for his own particular department. 

They have these offices, which are occupied only for official pur- 
poses. In those offices the business of the Republic is conducted. 
There, in those offices, the archives of the nation are preserved, 
and I can say here, in passing, that although they have never been 
made public, some day when they will be made public, when Cuba 

3229 



11 

has been made free, you will find in the archives of our country, 
in the office of our own Secretary of State, are the official commu- 
nications of the officials of the Republic ©f Cuba, and they are as 
creditable as any that have come from any country on the globe- 
communications of marked ability. 

But, Mr. President, there are other reasons why that Govern- 
ment, which I have undertaken to show does in fact exist, should 
be recognized. We should recognize it, if for nothing else, as a 
war measure. I do not doubt that intervention by the United 
States will mean war with Spain. We are bound to assume that 
it wnll. That being the case, we should, hand in hand with inter- 
vention, adopt this other resolution, recognizing not only the peo- 
I^le but the Government also as independent, to the end that we 
may strengthen those who are our natural allies and who can do 
more for us than anybody else. 

Gomez has now in the field, as I said a while ago, some 35,000 
or 40,000 men. He would have many thousands more if he had 
guns and ammunition for them. The very moment the United 
States intervenes and recognizes the independence of that republic 
Gomez can swell that army from 35,000 or 40,000 to 50,000, 00,000, 
80,000, 100,000 men, and all we will have to do is to put guns and 
ammunition in their hands and they will speedily evict the Span- 
ish battalions from the Island of Cuba. If we will only v/ith our 
Navy blockade the harbors, so that they can take no more provi- 
sions in, the Cubans will speedily put an end to the war, and there 
will be no necessity for this Government to expose our troops to 
the ravages of yellow fever and the other difficulties and disad- 
vantages that would attend a campaign in that island in the 
rainy season. 

But, Mr. President, there is another reason still why this propo- 
sition should be incorporated into these resolutions. It is the rea- 
son why, in the original draft of the resolutions, I incorporated it. 
I put in there, and proiX)se to put it back in there if I can, a dec- 
laration that the Republic of Cuba should be at once recognized 
by the Government of the United States because of the legal efl;ect 
that would result if we did not do that. I hold that it is well set- 
tled as a princiijle of international law that if one country absorb 
another it takes not only the legal rights and advantages of that 
country but it takes also the obligations of that country. We 
have all been told by the newspapers and otherwise— I have never 
seen any contradiction of it, and therefore I have assumed that it 
is true— that the revenues of Cuba have been, by solemn enact- 
ment of the Spanish Government, pledged to the payment of the 
principal and interest of $400,000,000 of Spanish-Cuban 4 per cent 
bondsi 

Mr. President, what will be the consequence to this Government 
if we go down into that island treating them as in a state of an- 
archy, turning our back on Gomez and his government, denying 
that there is any government, banishing Spain from the island, 
taking possession of the territory, and appropriating the revenues 
either to ourselves or to "a stable" government that the United 
States of America through the President is to establish in that 
island? What would be the consequence? We would take the 
rights and privileges and advantages attaching to the territory 
and we would take the debts fastened on it also, just as if you buy 
a piece of property that is mortgaged, you take it subject to the 
mortgage and must pay the mortgage or lose your proi>erty. That 

82^ 



12 

is the legal proposition that I assert. I am not going to stop here 
to read authorities, but I will do so, if it should be challenged. 

Mr. ELKINS. Will the Senator from Ohio allow a question? 

Mr. FORAKER. Certainly. 

Mr. ELKINS. If Gomez takes the island, what wnll become of 
the mortgage? 

Mr. FORAKER. It does not make any difference to us what 
happens if Gomez takes it; but I w'ill tell you what wall happen. 
If Gomez takes the island by revolution, the whole obligation is 
wiped out, for those who successfully revolutionize start anew, 
as revolutionists have started anew from the beginning of the 
world, except only as to obligations which they themselves might 
create. 

Mr. ELKINS. Let me ask the Senator one further question. 
If we should take the island by war, would not those obligations 
be wiped out as well? 

Mr. FORAKER. Do you want to take the island by war? 

Mr. ELKINS. That is not the question. 

Mr. FORAKER. It is the question that I put. Why do you 
ask me to discuss propositions not involved in this debate? It is 
because, in my judgment, this intervention is to be deliberately 
turned from intervention on the ground of humanity into an ag- 
gressive conquest of territory. 

Mr. ELKINS. That does not answer the question. 

Mr. FORAKER. I do not care. I am not going to answer it 
now. I am not going to answer it because it does not belong in 
this case. I can not discuss every kind of a question that a Sen- 
ator by an interrogatory may seek to put before me, especially not 
when in the very next "breath he will refuse or at least evade to 
say whether he wants this Government to acquire that island by 
conquest or not. 

I say here as a principle of international law, if the United 
States Government goes down there and drives Spain out and puts 
somebody else in, forming " a stable government " of her making, 
that ' ' stable government " will become responsible, and the United 
States of America will become responsible. I will answer you 
further now. You would not answer me. 1 thought probably if 
I dallied with you a while yoii would. If the United States of 
America takes that island by intermeddling, as w^'iters on inter- 
national law call it, with the affairs of another, she, too, will be- 
come responsible, and what is the consequence? The United 
States of America steps in behind four hundred million of Spanish- 
Cuban 4 per cent bonds. You do not admit the proposition. It 
is possible that it is open to some debate. I will concede for the 
sake of the argument it is. But who holds these $400,000,0-)0 of 
bonds? I iTuderstand they are held largely in Germany, largely 
in France, and largely in the United States. 

Does anybody imagine, Mr. President, if we should go into 
Cuba and there establish a stable government for which we woiild 
be responsible, that the present Emperor of Germany would hesi- 
tate one moment to say to the peojile of the LTnited States, ' ' You 
have taken by conquest the revenues that Spain had a right to 
pledge and did pledge to pay the principal and interest of bonds 
due to my subjects, and I will now look to you? " Does anybody 
doubt that he would do it? No; nobody does wiio judges without 
bias, I feel free to assert. And if Spain and France would make 
such a demand on the United States, the distinguished Senator 
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13 

from West Virginia, I imagine, would be ono of the first to say, 
"We ought to pay up rather than have any fighting." 

Mr. ELKINS. I do not think it ia fair to put a question to me 
and not allow me to answer it. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cockrell in the chair). 
Does the Senator from Ohio yield to the Senator from West Vir- 
ginia? 

Mr. FORAKER. Certainl}-. 

Mr. ELKINS. I say to the Senator that I would not. There ia 
no soundness in his proposition. There is no authority in the 
world, and I challenge the Senator to show anything that gives 
authority, to support his proposition in law— any legal authority. 

Mr. FORAKER. I have a very good one right here. 

Mr. ELKINS. Read it. 

Mr. FORAKER. And I can give you a great many other au- 
thorities as they have been given by writers on the subject of inter- 
national law, for there is not one, from Grotius down to Lawrence, 
who does not assert that doctrine. Hall says, at page 105: 

When a State ceases to exist by absorption in another State, the latter in 
the same way is the inheritor of all local rights, obligations, and jsroperty. 

The whole State is not here absorbed, but that which is to be 
absorbed is that which is subject to the lien. 

I might cite you many more authorities if I had thought it worth 
while to bring them here and tax the patience of the Senate with 
them. 

Mr. ELKINS. That does not answer the question. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Ohio yield 
to the Senator from West Virginia? 

Mr. FORAKER. I am always glad to hear from the Senator 
from West Virginia, for he is so very good-natured. But, Mr. 
President, to go back to what I was discussing, I was just about 
saying, suppose, for the sake of the argument, the Senator from 
West Virginia is right to the extent that it is a debatable proposi- 
tion, we must consider this as a practical as well as a theoretical 
question. Treating it as a practical question, do you suppose 
that the rulers of Germany, France, and other countries whose 
subjects are inttsrested as holders of these bonds would hesitate to 
call us to account? I do not hesitate to say they would. I do not 
hesitate to believe they would; and then we would have other and 
far more serious complications. I want to avoid them. 

If we recognize the independence of the Republic of Cuba, that 
liability is avoided. We absolutely estop evei-ybody from making 
such a demand upon us; we take no responsibility. Those peo- 
ple, according to our resolutions, have already accomplished their 
independence without any help from this country, but rather iu 
spite of all this country has done to patrol our coasts in the in- 
terests of Spain. They are already in a situation where they can 
set up their government, and all we do in going there is to 
recognize the existence of that government and act with our 
natural allies. 

Ah, but saj's somebody, when you go there, if you recognize the 
existence of that government, j^ou are compelled to report to 
Gomez, and there will be a question at once between General 
Milas and General Gomez as to who should command. If there 
be any government in the Island of Cuba to-day, it is either the 
Spanish Government or it is the Re^public of Cuba, and when 
General Miles goes to Cuba I would rather have him report to 
General Gomez than to General Blanco. 

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14 

Mr. President, for all these reasons, which I am conscious I have 
most imperfectly advanced, I believe that it is the duty of the 
United States Government this very day, not only to intervene, 
but at the same time to recognize the independence of the people 
of that island and the independence of the government which 
the Cubans have established. 

I for one say to you frankly I would be ashamed to see the 
United States recognizing the independence of the people of Cuba 
and in the same resolution turning their backs upon heroic, grand 
old Gomez and his compatriots. For my part my voice is against 
any such proposition. 

Mr. President, I have not at any time had any trouble in my 
mind about independence and intervention, but I have had this 
kind of a trouble in my mind: The trouble has been whether it 
should be independence and intervention or independence and a 
declaration of war outright. I think, logically sneaking, it ought 
to be a declaration of war, and I would be standing here arguing 
for such a declaration if I were not of the opinion that armed in- 
tervention will give us an opportunity to suitably punish Spain 
for the destruction of the Maine and 266 of our officers and sailors. 
[Applause in the galleries.] 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Order must be observed in the 
galleries or they \n\\ be cleared. 

Mr. FORAKER. We have been told, Mr. President, that the 
board of inquiry appointed by our Government by its report has 
estopped us from such a declaration. I dispute it. It is true that 
the board of inquiry found that they could not tell what person 
or persons were responsible for that disaster, but the contest shows 
that in that connection they had reference only to the question 
what person or persons pressed the button that sent the electric 
current on its fateful mission; and that, Mr. President, is imma- 
terial in the light of the other facts unequivocally found by that 
board of inquiry. 

That board of inquiry has officially found— and it is a most con- 
servative report throughout; as the President well says in his 
message, all Americans have absolute confidence in the truthful- 
ness of it— that board of inquiry found that our ship went into 
that harbor on a friendly mission; that the Spanish authorities 
were advised in advance of her coming; that she was coming not 
for warlike purposes, but only on a mission of peace, to cultivate 
better relations with Spain— a courteous visit in recognition of 
the friendly relations, of which we have heard so much, between 
Spain and this country. The court further find that when our 
ship reached the entrance to the harbor she was taken in charge 
by a Spanish official— the harbor pilot— and by him towed to buoy 
No. 4 and there made fast, and there stationed during her stay 
in that harbor, and that while she was there stationed she was 
destroyed by a submarine mine. That is the finding. 

What, Mr. President, is a submarine mine? Did any Senator 
ever hear of any private individual having submarine mines on 
sale, or of any private individual handling submarine mines, es- 
pecially in a territory where war is present? And does not every 
Senator know that under the laws then in force in Havana, by the 
edict of Weyler issued on the ICth day of February. 1896, no pri- 
vate individual could have in his possession any kind of an explo- 
sive, not even a pound of gunpowder, without being liable to the 
death penalty? Do you imagine that any private individuals, with 
£239 



15 

that kind of a law in force there, were engaged in handling sub- 
marine mines? 

No, it is an absolute absurdity, it seems to me, for us to imagine 
that the submarine mine that destroyed the battle ship Muhie was 
anything else than a governmental implement and agency of war. 
Suppose, for illustration, instead of that ship being destroyed by 
a submarine mine, as she was, she had been sunk by a shot tired 
from Morro Castle, under the guns of which she was buoved. 
Wonld any Senator in such instance imagine that there could be 
any (juestion about that piece of artillery being a governmental 
agency and implement of war? Would anybody stand up and 
<luestion that it was a gov.^rnmenlal agency under the control of 
government officials, and that the Spanish Government could be 
held liable by us lor the result of the discharge of that gun as a 
hostile act of war? 

Mr. President, the gnn was not any more a governmental agency 
than this mine was. The gun was not anymore under the control 
of the Government than this mine was. The gun was not any 
more siibject to governmental control and to he discharged by 
governmental agencies than was this mine. 

But if it had been the case of a discharge from a gun, what would 
Spain have done? Why, the whole world would have recognized 
that we were bound to assume that it was an act of war. Spain 
would have recognized it. How could she have escaped from the 
consequences? Only in one way, and then she would have remained 
liable for all damages that occurred. She could have escaped from 
the conclusion that it was an act of war by immediately disavow- 
ing and immediately establishing by incontrovertible proof that 
it was an accident, if such a thing were possible. 

Mr. President, the same rule that would apply in the case of the 
gun does apply, and did apply, in this instance. And, Mr. Presi- 
dent, the significant thing is that Spain admitted by her conduct 
that it applied. What did Spain do? Instantbv she disavowed, 
just as she would have done in the case of the gun, and instantly 
sought to establish her innocence by proving that it was an acci- 
dent. 

No wonder, Mr. President, that she seized upon the theory that 
it was an accident when our own Government was everywhere 
proclaiming that it was an accident. She sought to establish that 
it was an accident; she pitched her defense on that lu'oposition; 
she took her testimony; she made an official report. It is before 
the Senate. She finds in that report that the Maine was destroj-ed, 
not by an external agency, but by an accident, by the explosion 
of one of her magazines. 

Mr. President, that report is a lie to the living and a libel upon 
the dead. It is on its face absolutely and conclusively false. 
There is one circumstance that will forever keep it branded as 
such, as it now is, and that is the fact that the keel plates of that 
ship after the explosion were found iJl feet above where they 
should have been found as the ship rests on the bottom of that 
harboT if there had been no explosion, and the bottom plates of the 
ship are bent ux)ward like an inverted V, like mj' hand is [illus- 
trating]. Do you thinic an explosion from within would bave 
bent the keel nlfttes upward. wonM have drawn them up thrnugh 
the decks r n that ship a distance of 34 feet, and would have bf^nt 
them in that manner? No; you can not think that until the law8 
of natuTe have been changed. They have not been changed yet. 
They were still in operation then. 
aj29 



16 

Now, what is the effect of this fact? Spain recognized that she 
must make a defense. She chose to call it an accident; she so 
reported. This one fact— the present condition of the keel plates— 
absolutely wrecks and destroys her whole defense as completely 
as the Maine was destroyed by her submarine mine. What is the 
result? The result of It is that Spain stands to-day convicted by 
her own effort at defense, convicted in the presence of the nations 
of the earth, of that hideous and cowardly crime. 

What is our duty in view of it? Mr. President, we owe it to 
the brave men dead to vindicate their reputations from the brutal 
charge that they died of their own negligence. We owe it, Mr. 
President, to the splendid record of the American Navy to pre- 
serve it from the tarnish that is sought to be put upon it. We 
owe it, Mr. President, to our own good name among the nations 
of the earth that the perpetrators of such a cruel outrage shall 
not go unwhipped of justice. 

No nation can afirord to pass by such an affront as that in silence. 
This is not a case for the application of the Scriptural injunction 
about the turning of the other cheek, but it is a case, Mr. President, 
for the application of tliat other Scriptural injunction, "An eye 
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." 

It is not morality, it is not Christianity, it is not religion, it is 
not common decency, it is not common sense, but only a matidlin 
sentimentality to talk in the presence of such circumstances and 
facts about the horrors of war. War is horrible, always to be 
deplored, and ever to be avoided if it can be avoided consistently 
with the dignity and the honor and the good name of the nation. 
But, Mr. President, much as war is to be deplored, it is a thousand 
times better to have it in a case lUie this than to be written down 
before all the nations of the earth as pusillanimous— as wanting 
in pluck and courage. 

Yes, Mr. President, business interests may be interfered with, 
loss of life may occur, all apprehended evils may result, but no 
matter what the cost, in the presence of this great commanding 
duty Vfe must go forward. The time, I repeat, for diplomacy has 
passed. The time for action has come. Let the doubting, the 
hesitating, the opposing, go to the rear, while the vii'ile, strong- 
minded, patriotic, liberty -loving masses of the American people, 
coming from all the sections and all pirrsuits and avocations of 
life, rally as one man around our gallant Army and Navy, and 
taking the flag of our country carry it on to triumphant victory. 
[Applause in the galleries.] 

A victory, Mr. President, for civilization over barbarism; a vic- 
tory for the right and capacity of man to govern himself; a vic- 
tory for the Western Hemisphere; a victory for Cuba; a victory for 
freedom and libertj^ and independence; a victory worthy of the 
descendants of the heroic men who achieved our own independ- 
ence, and v/orthy of the successors of those heroic men who have 
since preserved and perpetuated our priceless heritage. [Applause 
in the galleries.] 
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